A Deserter's Encounter (Episode)
A Deserter's Encounter (脱走の出会い, Dassō no Deai) is the eighteenth episode of Mobile Suit Stardust Gundam. Summary On board the ABS-2001 Urenbeck-class, Kari Arias is sitting in the bridge as she commands the ship to leave the Arian Homeland. It does so, accompanied by a ABS-1005 Adonis-class with Brez Wo Arias inside. As they leave, a narration begins: it has been three months since the events which unfolded at Colony Ark happened. With the EUS-0098 Grissomm now in Welgaia, it has received commands to stay hidden until Operation Returner is started. The crew are forced to stay down inside a drained out revine as they perform repairs on the ship. However, due to Sigro and his stealing of the MC2MS-13579 Stardust Gundam, any kind of defense they could muster up against an attack has weakened. Night overcomes the afternoon, as Sigro has come across an abandoned town where he uses to hide the Stardust and himself. He sits in front of a fire he made himself as he eats food taken from the ship. Later, he sets up somewhere to sleep and somewhere to work at as he puts down his bag on it. He goes to lay down while looking outside, more calmed down than he ever was after getting on the Grissomm. Meanwhile, on board the Grissomm's bridge, Doralus talks with the crew about if they find Sigro or if he comes back. Doralus says that if he comes back, he'll be given the death penelty immediately, which upsets Sigro's friends, especially Anima. She snaps at him for even bringing up such a thing. Armen tries to provide some kind of solace, but she just runs off. They go off as Doralus dismisses them all, but Armen stays behind to tell him that to at least just lock Sigro in the brig. Doralus reluctantly agrees to it just to not have his friends come for his head. Elsewhere, the ABS-EF1002 Lance-class has stopped in the middle of the desert as they've found the Grissomm once more. Dagan Ragea and many of his subordinates look out at it with bioculars. Dagan decides that they'll attack during the afternoon tomorrow, so it wouldn't be like killing a helpless insect. Jess why he would say that, and he says that he still has his pride, and destroying them now would do nothing for him. She only sort of understands as he returns to the ship. The morning comes, and Sigro is awake, going to eat another one of the canned goods as he realizes they've expired. He goes outside of the town to find where he can find something to eat. At the same time, Dagan and his men ride out into a local town for some kind of special breakfast to celebrate what might be their final mission against the Grissomm. They ride there in mobile suit carrier trucks, which are carrying three AMS-1001 Aryan units and Dagan's AMS-1003 Naxos. Sigro discovers a rural restaurant in the neighboring town, walks in, and sits down after the large walk he took to get there. He gets some water serviced to him as he eats away at a piece of bread. At that moment, Dagan and his trusted officers for the mission walk into the place and get something to order, saying to the owner that they're going to celebrate. Sigro sees them and suddenly remembers Dagan's face from Tetaria. He decides to keep to himself until he can finish and quickly leave. Jess notices him and decides to order him something too, which makes Dagan chuckle a bit. Sigro walks over to them and tells them thanks, but he can't just have people doing things for him. Dagan chuckles again, amused by his attempts at acting manly. He goes outside as he runs back to his hiding place, which Dagan sees out of the open doorway. With his curiosity peaked, he decides to leave the attack to his men as he wants to follow Sigro back to where ever he's running to. His men try to stop him, saying that isn't important since he seemed to be a civilian. Dagan feels disappointment as he asks if they heard the sound of a pistol being unholstered in the building. He tells them that he might be a Union soldier doing spy work for the first time, and got nervous. He goes off, with Jess deciding to come along as well. Meanwhile, at the Grissomm, Doralus goes to the medical bay to be checked up on, as he's been feeling sick since they got to Welgaia. Armen tells him that he might've caught some kind of sickness a while back and only now are the symptoms showing. She wants to examine him more closely as she has him leave for now. He goes to the bridge and asks for a status report, one of the operators saying that there's been no activity anywhere near them for the last 24 hours. He relaxes in his chair, while asking Mirai how she became able to pilot ships (just to kill time). She says that her father was a professional navigator in the military for transporting supplies and goods. He was elsewhere during the attack on Colony Ark, and she hopes to get back to space again. Mirai stops as she notices that Doralus is sweating, who starts thinking its the uniform. Suddenly, one of the operators yells that three enemy units are approaching the ship. Doralus immediately orders for the cannons to be aimed at them, while Takumi runs out of his room and towards the launch bay. He gets in the MHM2A-13581 Hawkmey Fighter and launches out, when he's suddenly attacked by the Aryan as he ascends out the revine. He manages to dodge them as he attacks. Meanwhile, Sigro makes it back to the abandoned town, gasping for air. He starts to hear Dagan approaching in the truck, and that makes him go to the Stardust, closing the hatch and waiting. Dagan and Jess make it there as they walk around, finding where Sigro's been living. Dagan starts to find it hard to believe that a spy would stay in such a place. Jess wanders around while looking for him, wondering if he's not a spy, but a normal soldier. As soon as she says that, she sees the Stardust and calls Dagan over. Dagan realizes he met the amateur pilot of the Gundam as he goes over to it. Sigro decides to make the Stardust get up, which forces Dagan and Jess to run back to the truck. He gets into the cockpit of the Naxos and makes it get up also, ready to fight Sigro then and there. Sigro manages to grab Dagan and drag him out of the town. Meanwhile, the Grissomm ascends up to support Takumi, as one of the Aryans gets destroyed by one of the cannons. This forces the other two to call Dagan for back-up, which forces him to retreat back to his troops. Jess hurries and drives away with the Naxos, when Sigro realizes what's going on and follows them. Soon enough, he arrives there to save one of his pilots when Sigro attacks from behind. Takumi sees this and tells the bridge crew to look, which they already are as Doralus decides to recall the Hawkmey to reload. Sigro defends the Grissomm from Dagan, but just barely, until Sigro tries to stop the fighting. He offers himself and the Stardust, as long as the Grissomm remains unharmed, but he gets shot at by one of the Aryans instead. Dagan stops him, deciding to capitalize on this opportunity as he accepts, taking the Stardust with Sigro inside. Doralus slams against the wall as he calls Sigro a traitor, while Sigro himself sits in the cockpit, realizing what he's done. Trivia